Some think that at the moment of death everyone has one last chance to dispose of himself or herself forever. Ladislaus Boros, S.J., has been a leading proponent of this idea.
Nothing in Scripture supports the idea of a final option, and there is much against it. The gospel’s warnings emphasize the importance for eternity of one’s condition at death. This condition and therefore one’s fate are being settled now: “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6.2).
A friend requested that I review “Angels in My Hair” by Lorna Byrne. The book is a good example of New Age spirituality. Byrne claims that she has been seeing and talking to angels since she was born.
She also claims that she speaks to ghosts.
One religion is as good as another.
Elisha the O.T. Prophet, became an angel.
God forgives everyone and all go to heaven.
She claims she saw God face-to-face, twice.
Archangel Gabriel told her it was OK to participate in a “born again” prayer group.
The body and soul to become more united and eventually become one.
“I know some would say that if you are murdered, then it had to be your time, or it had to be retribution for an act in a past life—but this is not always true” (emphasis in original). In other words, being murdered could be retribution for an act committed in a past life.
Angels in My Hair: A Memoir by Lorna Byrne, published in the United States by Doubleday © 2008, First edition, 320 pages.
Spiritism is the practice of attempted communication with the spirits of another world. Every educated Catholic should know something about the morality of such actions.
We find in Scripture: “There shall not be found among you any one who… practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord; and because of these abominable practices the Lord your God is driving them out before you” (Deut. 18:10-12).
Divination: attempting to foretell future events.
Soothsayer: one who professes to foretell events.
Augur: one who interprets signs omens.
Sorcerer: one who practices black magic.
Charmer: one who chants or recites a magic verse or formula.
Medium: a person through whom the spirits of the dead are allegedly to be able to contact the living.
Wizard: a person who practices magic.
Necromancer: one who uses divination to allegedly communication with the dead; black art.
All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone (CCC 2116).
*Lev. 19:31 tells us to not turn to mediums or to seek out spiritists.
*Lev. 20:6, 27 equates the seeking out of mediums with prostitution (doing so is an act of infidelity to God that is not just adultery, but involves a prurient interest in the occult things equating it with prostitution — a medium also is “hired” which is also an image of prostitution).
*Deut. 18:10-11 Gives a whole list of prohibitions involving the occult and spirit world.
The Roman Catholic Church does not recognize the existence of ghosts. This is because doing so would be contrary to their beliefs regarding the afterlife. According to the church, a soul leaves the body after death. The soul is either accepted into heaven or condemned to hell for all eternity. However, ghosts are believed to be spirits that left the body after death but did not leave the earth, which is in contrast to what the Catholic church believes.
Angels are personal, spiritual and immortal creatures with intelligence and free will, who glorify God unceasingly, and who serve God as messengers of His saving plan. Angels, according to Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Hebrews, are “spirits whose work is service, sent to help those who will be the heirs of salvation” (1:14). The word “angel” means messenger. They are God’s messengers first of all, but their service is broader and is ideally portrayed in Saint Raphael, who accompanied the son of Tobit. “Do not worry, my sister,” Tobit assured his wife…, “for a good angel will go with him. His journey will be successful, and he will come back safe and sound” (Tob. 5:20-21). During the first centuries angels were represented as men.
Although the existence of an individual guardian angel for every soul is not a doctrine of faith, it is supported by Scripture (Ps. 91:11; Matt. 18:10) and has been commonly taught in the Church. Universal belief is that each person has a Guardian Angel, assigned by God to protect and intercede on his or her behalf. Guardian Angels are good spirits assigned to help us while always remaining in the presence of God (Mt 18:10).
After attending a Marian Conference where Lorna Byrne was speaking, a close friend requested that I review “Angels in My Hair”.
I sat down with a pad of post-it-notes and began to read the book with a theologically critical eye. Each time I came across something that caused me some concern, I flagged it. By the time I finished reading the book, I had 27 flags sticking out of the book.
Lorna Byrne claims that as a very young child she saw a myriad of angels. She conversed with them , “Sometimes we used words as you and I understand them, but sometimes no words were needed—we would know each other’s thoughts.”
Pg 2 – I was seeing… the spirits of people who had died.
Pg 3 – She merged with her deceased brother.
Pg 5 – When babies die their spirits stay with their mothers for as long as they are needed.”
Pg 7 – She meets Michael the Archangel.
Pg 13 – Guardian angels. “He was assigned to you before you were even conceived…”
Pg 24-25 – Queen of the Angels. The angels explained that this person was the Queen of the Angels, the mother of the universe, the mother of creation, the mother of all the angels.
Pg 29 – Angels are not just found in Christian Churches; they are in the synagogues, in mosques, and in all the holy places. Your religion makes no difference to the angels; they have told me that all churches should be under one roof. Muslims, Jews, Protestants, Hindus, Catholics, and all the other different religions should be together under one umbrella.
Pg 51 – Elijah gives her a vision of her future husband.
Pg 75 -Angels told her to keep her dating secret from her parents. a Godly apparition will NEVER lead you to disobey your elders, superiors, or the Church. (so we need to be aware of Church teaching and the like)
Pg 77 – Poltergeist
Although poltergeist stories date back to the first century, the evidence supporting the existence of poltergeists is entirely unsubstantiated.
Pg 79 – Souls do not become angels when they enter God’s presence.
Pg 85 – Angel of Death. Pure fiction. God and God alone decides when a person will die. There is no tug-o-war.
Also, the soul is pure spirit, it cannot be touched.
Pg 92 -“All of a sudden angels appeared in a brilliant light, surrounded me, and reached in and took my soul from my body. From that moment on I remember nothing. I don’t remember my journey home or anything else that evening. Upon waking up the next morning, I knew that the angels had transported my soul so that I could be with Mark spiritually, leaving my body and soul connected by a thread.”
Pg 103 – “That day my soul left my body…”
Pg 112 – “The Angel of a Mother’s Love is round like the sun and enormous.”
Pg 156 – “I have always loved churches and I went to Mass whenever I could”
Pg 159 – “From this cloud in the center of us God as a young man materialized and became visible…”
Exodus 33:20-23, 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” 21 Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. 22 When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
Pg 167 – Archangel Michael tells her it is OK to participate in a “born again” prayer group.
Pg 173 – “I know there is a place called hell, that it actually exists, but God has never shown my anyone being sent there. I can only go by what I have seen myself, and from what I have seen, God forgives everyone—no matter what they have done. I know this is hard for us to understand. A lot of time we look for justice and revenge, so it is very hard for us to understand, but when our soul stands in from of God after death, it feels so much love and desire to be with God that it wants so much to stay there and it asks for forgiveness in a very deep and real way, forgiveness for all that was done on this earth out of the frailty of the human condition.”
Is There a Final Option at the Moment of Death?
Some think that at the moment of death everyone has one last chance to dispose of himself or herself forever. Ladislaus Boros, S.J., has been a leading proponent of this idea.
Nothing in Scripture supports the idea of a final option, and there is much against it. The gospel’s warnings emphasize the importance for eternity of one’s condition at death. This condition and therefore one’s fate are being settled now: “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6.2).
The prophet Malachi expressed this truth concisely in the first reading: “Lo, the day is coming, blaring like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire . . . but for you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays” (Mal 3:19-20). Here the two elements, fire and light, are combined with the announcement of the last judgment. Fire burns and purifies. Light illuminates and makes people rejoice in the beatific vision of God. But judgment comes at the end of each one’s earthly pilgrimage. For him, to die also means in a certain sense to experience the end of the world.
“It is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb 9:27).
There is no judgment, all are saved.
Pg 200 – I listen to Michael and he tells me what to write; he tells me to write from my heart.”
This is called “channeling”.
Pg 201 – She has a conversation with a dead spirit.
Pg 224 – The first time Jesus is mentioned.
Pg 231 – The body and soul to become more united and eventually become one.
Pg 233 – She identifies herself as a healer. Lorna blesses Nick.
Pg 235 – “Our souls choose the journey in this life.” Everything is pre-ordained. Fate.
Pg 249 – I know some would say that if you are murdered, then it had to be your time, or it had to be retribution for an act in a past life—but this is not always true. (emphasis in original).
It is important to understand that the Catholic Church forbids Catholics to have anything to do with Spiritism, which she condemns as a destructive superstition. The Holy See has issued at least five decrees (1840, 1847, 1856, 1898, 1917) forbidding Catholics “to be present at spiritistic conversations or manifestations of any kind, even though these phenomena present the appearance of honesty or piety, whether by interrogating souls or spirits, or by listening to responses, or only by looking on, even with a tacit or expressed protestation that one does not wish to have anything to do with wicked spirits.”
The immortality of the soul is a dogma of the Catholic faith. Spiritism in no way proves immortality, for despite its exaggerated claims, no person has ever succeeded in summoning a spirit from the dead or communicating with one.
That said, it is important to understand that the Catholic Church forbids Catholics to have anything to do with Spiritism, which she condemns as a destructive superstition. The Holy See has issued at least five decrees (1840, 1847, 1856, 1898, 1917) forbidding Catholics “to be present at spiritistic conversations or manifestations of any kind, even though these phenomena present the appearance of honesty or piety, whether by interrogating souls or spirits, or by listening to responses, or only by looking on, even with a tacit or expressed protestation that one does not wish to have anything to do with wicked spirits.”
Spiritism is simply a modern from of pagan necromancy (summoning the spirits of the dead) condemned by the Law of Moses. “There shall not be found among you any one who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination, a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord” (Deut. 18:10-12).
Some of these practices survive or reappear from time to time in contemporary culture. Instead of taking the form of false religions, however, today they may present themselves as programs of self-improvement or psychological therapy, or as new forms of “spirituality.” Whatever their guise, one must be careful to avoid any participation in false worship and superstition.
Attempts to summon the ghosts of the dead are forbidden. Such attempts, called spiritism or spiritualism, always risk evoking demonic activity, and often are undertaken for the sake of divination and/or magic. The séances conducted by supposed mediums often involve religious elements whose doctrinal basis denies Jesus’ divinity. If Catholics undertake such practices to seek reassurance about the fate of their loved ones, they show lack of confidence in prayer and the rites of the Church, and manifest underlying defects in their faith. Those who seek guidance through a medium also show lack of confidence in divine guidance (see 1 Chr. 10.13-14). Participation is a grave matter, and the Church warns her members to avoid having anything to do with such practices.
Spiritism is a pagan superstition, which denies every dogma of the Christian Gospel in the name of an imagined communication with the dead, which is a cruel parody of the Communion of Saints. Experience has proven that spiritism comes with many dangers to both body and soul; it has frequently destroyed the physical health of its practitioners; caused mental illness, and deprived them of the true faith.
The immortality of the soul is a dogma of the Catholic faith. Spiritism in no way proves immortality, for despite its exaggerated claims, no person has ever succeeded in summoning a spirit from the dead or communicating with one.